Amazon MP3

Wired Magazine recently proclaimed that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos “owns the web.” Here at The Recapp, we find this difficult to argue. After conquering books and home shopping, Amazon was the first company to offer a free cloud music service, Cloud Drive, early in 2011.

This changes everything. Sync your full music library to Amazon MP3 and your phone. Suddenly, your music steps away from being classified as a thing that we keep locked up somewhere. Now your music is with you always and forever (provided you have Internet access) with, as the cliché goes, the push of a button.

Amazon MP3 is free with an initial storage capacity of 5 GB, but more storage can be purchased if you wish. And although the Amazon MP3 service and app are free, new music to put into the app is not. The bright side: Amazon’s prices are extremely competitive, as you’ve probably come to expect from the massive online retailer. Specials run regularly for $5 albums. But you can add to your library however you’d like, whether it’s via iTunes or by copying a CD, and Amazon’s player will sync it. The initial transfer of all of your music to the cloud is a bit painful, but after that, it’s smooth sailing.

For what it’s worth, Amazon MP3 has some competition. Google Music is essentially the same service, but with a slicker interface and larger initial storage capacity (20,000 songs). Spotify is a subscription music service with access to a huge library for a single price. Both of those are also socially integrated (let’s hear it for Google+ and Facebook).

Reviewed: Dec 26, 2011 | Nick Hurwitch

This app is included in a scenario called 3 Best Music Apps for the Cloud